With its seat in Montgomery, Alabama became the 22nd State of the Union on December 14, 1819. Before becoming a state, Alabama became part of the Mississippi Territory in 1798. A couple decades later the Alabama Territory was created in 1817.

When Civil War broke, Montgomery became the first capital of the breakaway Confederate States of America. The end of the Civil War brought widespread hunger, poverty, and displacement to white & black Alabamians. Alabama came under military rule and General W. Swayne served virtually as military governor of Alabama in 1867. In 1868 Alabama voters, including black men voting for the first time, ratified a new Constitution that placed more emphasis on education and women's rights. Military rule ended in Alabama and Republicans gained control of the governor's office and the legislature.

Reconstruction brought improvements in education, especially for African Americans. Emphasis was also placed on internal improvements to roads and railroads, though there were allegations of fraud and misuse of state funds on these projects. Many white Alabamians fought Reconstruction through the political process and also through the emergence of organized resistance groups. The Ku Klux Klan was the most well known. Others were the Pale Faces and the Knights of the White Camellia. Republican Reconstruction ended in Alabama in 1874 when Democrats re-gained control of the legislature & governor's office and, in the next year, rewrote the state constitution.

Post-Reconstruction Alabama remained racially segregated until the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, which begun in the state upon the election of Governor George Wallace who vowed, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

Preamble of the state of Alabama (1901)
We the people of the State of Alabama, invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution.